This blog is dedicated to sharing my published works and travel accounts, announcing and documenting the cultural activities that I organize and sharing interesting art & culture updates from all over the world.

Monthly Archives: November 2009

This article about Kairouan in Tunisia comes as part of the celebrations that coincide with the city’s selection as ‘Islamic Capital of Culture’.

The city, founded by Sidi Uqba ibn Nafi’ around 670 AD, is famous for the mosque carrying his name. Considered the fourth holiest city in Islam, it was once a great learning centre and a site of pilgrimage. Sadly, the city was destroyed in the eleventh century by Banu Hilal and Banu Salim, Arab tribes sent by the Fatimid Caliph in Cairo (al-Mustansir) to punish the Zirid rulers for having switched their alliance to the Abbasids in Baghdad.